A dead language comes alive

Stories are told on screen and the children follow the trials and tribulations of ancient life

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Roman remains: it's more like A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum than a Latin class

Frances Childs

12:06AM BST 24 Jul 2004

A funny thing happened on the way to the classroom. Frances Childs on hi-tech Latin

The room buzzes with children's voices. They giggle and argue, peering at each other's computer screens, comparing notes. Occasionally a voice calls out: "Sir, come over here, I don't get this bit." Rowlie Darby, an English teacher, flits around the room giving advice and encouragement. This is Monday afternoon, and the Latin Club at Patcham High School, Brighton, is in full flow.

The children are busy translating a Latin text, part of the online "Cambridge Latin E-Course" for secondary schools. Developed by the Cambridge Schools Classics Project, Granada Learning and Cambridge University Press, the course aims to get Latin into state schools as a vibrant, popular subject.

If they stay the distance, the children will be guided up a carefully graded ladder of achievement to GCSE level. Book one has 12 levels, with a test for every four, and a certificate for those who pass. The children, who started in November, are on level six. All passed their first test with flying colours, and aim to sit the GCSE in 2006.

What is unique about the course is its reliance on technology. Latin is delivered using DVDs, CD-Roms and an interactive whiteboard. The children are taught not only the language but also the culture and history of the Romans. Actors tell their stories on screen. The children follow the trials and tribulations of particular families.

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"It's almost like a soap opera," says Mr Darby. Certainly there is a lot of laughter and excitement: it seems more like an evening at the National Theatre's new production of A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum than a class doing Latin translation.

"I enjoy using the computers, and watching the actors makes it really fun," says Tom, who is in Year 7. "I like languages anyway, and the Latin club is brilliant."

For its 20 members, from 11 to 16, the club is an after-school leisure activity. Many have chosen to join because they think it will help with a future career – medicine, for example. Some come merely for the enjoyment, and others because they want to find out more about the roots of their own language.

After half an hour of translation, the children gather around the whiteboard. They are completely engaged as they explain the differences between the perfect and imperfect tenses. They learn quickly, hands shooting up to explain the difference between, "Quintus kicked the dog" and "Quintus was kicking the dog".

Mr Darby, who has never learnt Latin, started the club because he was teaching Wolf, a novel by Gillian Cross, which is sprinkled with Latin words. He wanted to know what they meant. From that, he explains, "came a fascination with the roots of our language, and that's something the children have picked up on."

Because the course is delivered online, Mr Darby is learning with the children, an experience he finds liberating. "Sometimes they tell me the answer," he says. "We are all learning together." It does not seem to matter that he is not a trained classicist.

Chanting verbs parrot-fashion is a thing of the past. These children are computer-literate. They are at ease with animated characters on their computer screens, comfortable with sending work to be marked via email. It is this technological literacy that the Cambridge Latin project has so successfully tapped into – and, of course, the childhood world of the imagination, for storytelling is at the heart of the course.

The club has also forged links with Caroline Lawrence, a writer who sets her mysteries in the Roman Empire. When she visited recently she brought artefacts that the children could handle, including a 2,000-year-old clay lamp. "It was incredible," says Mr Darby. "The artefacts, the stories, the animated computer graphics, all these things have brought Latin alive, made it vibrant and accessible to the children."

Sophie, 15, agrees. "The Latin club has been a fantastic experience," she says. She is determined to pass Latin GCSE and has decided to continue coming to the club after she leaves Patcham High next year.

Now other schools in the area are taking an interest. Some are keen to set up their own Latin clubs. Eastbourne Technology College, where the take-up of GCSE French and Spanish has been disappointing, may offer the Cambridge course next year. The hope is that Latin will re-engage children who might otherwise drop languages.

"Latin shouldn't be for certain types of pupils in certain types of schools," says Will Griffiths, director of the Cambridge School Classics Project. "Independent schools have long recognised the subject's importance. We want all children to have access to it."